History
The peoples of Karameikos know the history of their land well. The earliest history, recorded in an ancient work of poetry entitled “The Song of Halav”, tells of the Traldar people. Generations of Traldar bards and village priests preserved this epic through traditional oral storytelling before historians finally committed it to writing six centuries ago. Karameikos at the Dawn of Time The region now called the Kingdom of Karameikos was once the homeland of the Traldar, an indigenous human race. Short, stocky, pale skinned people, the Traldar descended from the now lost Nithians, an ancient empire of which little survives. Scholars excavating Traldar villages have discovered that the early Traldar relied almost exclusively on fishing and hunting to survive. They made their weapons of wood and stone, constructed rude dugout canoes for transportation, and lived a frugal, subsistence-level existence. In Traldar legends, the Immortals (godlike beings) bequeathed to the Traldar the secrets of working tin and copper into bronze, weaving with spindle and loom, creating pottery with a potter’s wheel, and using many other miraculous tools and weapons. Indeed, evidence indicates that Traldar civilization took a sudden jump in sophistication. Almost overnight, the Traldar were forging bronze weapons and armor, cutting roads through the dense forests, and joining communities into a trading network of some complexity. Traldar hero-kings such as Lavv, Dendros, and Irthu reigned over large forest communities, engaged in trade, and used armor and weapons of glittering bronze. The Coming of the Beast-Men As the Traldar civilization flourished and expanded, it began to make contact with other civilizations. According to “The Song of King Halav,” a fierce horde of beast-men (probably gnolls) descended upon the Traldar, intent upon exterminating the tribe and occupying these rich lands themselves. The Traldar fought the beast-men invaders with their superior bronze weapons and armor, but ultimately, after long and bloody fighting, most of the Traldar and the beast-men perished. King Halav and the King of the Beast-Men slew one another in a great fight at the Volaga River. The surviving beast-men then departed Traldar lands while the surviving humans began to rebuild their homes and make their villages prosperous again. The heroes from the legend, Halav, Petra, and Zirchev, were actual persons. Halav was the chief of Lavv, a fortified village on the site of modern-day Kelvin; Petra was the queen of Krakatos, widowed early in the gnoll wars; Zirchev was a man of extraordinary intelligence who had been educated by the Hutaakans (which may be why the later legends gave him a bestial aspect). The Dark Age The time of King Halav has since been called the Golden Age of the Traldar, for the people of this land sank into a dark age following the death of this great leader and never fully recovered from the devastation brought by the gnolls. According to legends which have sprung up since this Golden Age, King Halav must return to Traldar lands before this can become a mighty nation again. During this dark time, many evil things appeared in the Traldar forests and mountains. Some evil force cursed the land with vampires, lycanthropes, and other beasts. Today, every village has its legends of a neighboring ruin once occupied by a vampire lord, or some local lad turning out to be a werewolf and slayer of villagers. Often the legends are true, and every youth knows that the land has its vampires and were-beings. Because horrid things flourished in the woods, travel between inland villages became unsafe. While coastline villages prospered from foreign trade, only the bravest of traders would risk expeditions into the Traldar interior. As a result, the inland villagers remained isolated and more ignorant than their seaside cousins. Clans of goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs also settled in Traldar lands, away from human communities. They warred upon one another and upon the humans, in general making the land wild and dangerous. Tribes of elves and gnomes also came to Traldar lands, the elves settling in the central forests of the land, the gnomes in the mountain foothills to the north. Both races traded peaceably with the humans and fought beside them against the less friendly humanoid tribes. In time, the Traldar recovered from the inhuman onslaughts. They began to call themselves Traladarans; Hutaakan influence and the passage of centuries had wreaked a natural evolution upon the Traldar, their customs, and their language. Traders from Thyatis and the Minrothad area began making regular trips to the coastal villages, improving their economy. The Traladarans remained a non-nation of independent villages that fought and traded together as the mood struck; they united to repel a foreign invader but had no central government, no King Halav to bring them together under a single banner. A number of petty lords took the title of king, rarely ruling farther away than a day’s walk, and often at the length of their sword. Ythron, Ivanovich, and Demara were among these rulers. Marilenev, a village at the mouth of the Volaga River (now officially called the Highreach River), rapidly grew into a town as trade flourished. It was nicknamed “The Mirror Port” by the traders who frequented it, due to the calmness and reflective quality of its sheltered bay. The Thyatian Invasion By a century ago, Marilenev was a flourishing trade city of 500 residents and the chief port of the Traladaran region. At the same time, improved communications and trade raised the standard of living within the disparate and previously isolated communities farther inland, recreating a sense of national identity. Had the Traladarans been left to their own devices, the various clans most likely would have united into a single council (similar to Glantri’s principalities) dominated by a strong leader, possibly a member of the powerful Marilenev Clan. However, as a result of this growth, the nearby nations of Darokin and Thyatis began viewing Traladara with increasing concern. The forest nation had never posed any organized threat, so neither nation had ever erected any significant defenses against Traladara. But, their leaders supposed, what if the Traladaran people should be united under a powerful leader – or, worse yet, conquered by an enemy foreign power? Darokin began sending merchants and government agents to build commercial ties and alliances with a number of Traladaran clans. The Empire of Thyatis sent troops to Marilenev, the Traladaran capital, and conquered it, claiming Traladara for Thyatis. The Darokinian leaders shrugged at this development but ensured that its border was secure from further Thyatian adventurism. Thyatis took few real steps to secure Traladara for itself beyond installing a garrison of soldiers in Marilenev. The military commander at the time renamed Marilenev Specularum (which means “The Mirror City”) after the reflective beauty of the bay. Taxes were collected on all trade revenue changing hands in the city. Other than that, the rest of Traladara was left pretty much to itself. The more isolated communities were completely unaffected by the “conquest.” Traders suffered a Thyatian tax, but the increased Thyatian interest in Traladara merely resulted in booming trade and increased profits for the Traladarans. Such was the situation upon the arrival of Duke Stefan Karameikos to the land that would eventually bear his name. Stefan Karameikos The modern history of Karameikos began 40 years ago in the empire of Thyatis. Stefan Karameikos III was born in A.C. 948, the heir to the small but unusually wealthy duchy of Machetos. His mother died when he was nine, his father when he was 20, and he became ruler of the duchy at that time. He’d already served as an officer in the imperial cavalry for three years and had been participating in adventures and heroic exploits even longer. He was a friend of the emperor of Thyatis. His future seemed predictable: Years of service in the military with adventuring on the side, then retirement to wisely rule his duchy and advise the emperor on matters of war and state. Karameikos was no content with that fate. He wanted to rule territory shaped by his hands and formed in his own image – and that description fit neither the duchy of his ancestors nor the empire of his Thyatian friend. He approached the emperor with an offer. Stefan would grant most of his ancestral lands and properties to the emperor in exchange for ownership of the Traladaran region and a guarantee of autonomy. The emperor was intrigued with the offer. Traladara had substantial potential to become a wealthy region, but it would take more time and effort than the emperor was willing to devote. Karameikos’s lands were close at hand and already valuable. The emperor and Karameikos came to terms and emerged from their conference more than satisfied, each convinced that he had come out ahead. Stefan Karameikos surrendered his ancestral lands to the emperor. The few properties he had remaining he sold for the ships and goods he would need to rule the region properly. The emperor, in return, recognized Traladara as the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, a sovereign region under the rule of Stefan Karameikos III. Both rulers signed decrees of eternal friendship and the promise of mutual defense in times of invasion, and the deal was set. Immediately after his agreement was signed into law, Duke Stefan sailed for his new duchy, making landfall in Specularum two weeks later. No fool, he presented his articles and orders to the city garrison before assembling the city leaders to announce his agreement with the emperor. The powerful Traladaran families in Specularum saw the political change as an opportunity to reestablish Traladaran independence. If they could kill the duke when he was most vulnerable, perhaps they could then erect a spirited enough defense to make it economically unfeasible for the cost-conscious Thyatians to conquer them again. However, before any organized plans could be made, the Marilenev Clan led an armed revolt against the duke. Stefan and the garrison put the rebellion down decisively, and most of the Marilenev men died in the attack. Naturally, from that point on the duke watched the other powerful families carefully, especially the Radu and Torenescu clans. Hooded assassins made a second attempt to take Duke Stefan’s life, this time in his very bedchamber, but Stefan awakened in time to seize his weapons and slay his attackers. He never learned who had sent the assassins, although the wealthy Traladaran families were obvious suspects. The Traladaran clans, offended by the duke’s stubborn resistance to assassination and overthrow, slowly and resentfully swore loyalty to him. They turned to other methods of combat and began to oppose him in the political, economic, and mercantile arenas. The duke began luring talented and ambitious young nobles from Thyatis. He concentrated his attention on the second and third sons and daughters of Thyatian aristocracy: the young men and women who would have been properly trained to rule and hold land but who would never inherit their own ancestral lands due to their siblings’ continued good health. Many flocked to him, nobles, adventurers, merchants, and common folk alike, ranging from single men and women to entire clans. Notable among these new retainers were: Ludwig von Hendriks , Duke Stefan’s aggressive and theatrical first cousin, who received a baronial title and lands in the western part of the duchy; Philip Vorloi , a successful merchant who provided substantial economic support to Duke Stefan and received a baronial title and lands to the east of the Marilenev estate; Sherlane Halaran, a nobleman and cleric of note who received baronial rank and lands in the lushly wooded northern region of the duchy; Olliver Jowett , a church leader in Thyatis who broke from his former teachings to help found the Church of Karameikos. While he excepted no land, Jowett became patriarch of Specularum and master of the church and Desmond Kelvin, an officer and gentleman who was of crucial importance to Karameikos during the Marilenev rebellion and received baronial rank and lands north of Specularum, where the Highreach (Volaga) River forks. Duke Stefan spent some uncomfortable years in Specularum after his arrival because he expended almost all of his tax revenues on the maintenance of his army and the building of fine roads to span the duchy. While he was about these tasks, the new breed of Thyatian settlers spread out from Specularum, founding homesteads and flooding into existing villages, often clashing with the native Traladarans. Duke Stefan, in his youthful exuberance, wanted to cement his claim to the duchy and push along the process of settlement and civilization. Unfortunately, he was not as thorough as he should have been about guarding against Thyatian abuses, so early resentment against him and his followers was harsh … and often deserved. After the Marilenev rebellion in Specularum there was no further armed resistance to the rule of Karameikos or his subordinate lords, but Traladaran resentment started off high and was fanned by the callousness of many Thyatian lords for years to come. Baron Vorloi stole no lands, but he began undercutting the prices of the Specularum merchant families, effectively stealing much of their business. These families, already bitter at Karameikos and his followers, now took great pains to oppose them at every turn, publicly or secretly, as revenge for what they had suffered. Worse still, Ludwig von Hendriks, the duke’s cousin, caused immediate and unending troubles for the duke as soon as he settled in his western lands (see sidebar, page 61). Not all situations where Thyatians moved into Traladaran areas were violent or even antagonistic. Baron Sherlane established himself as lord of the village of Threshold and then ruled firmly but fairly, treating Thyatians and Traladarans with equal justice. Desmond Kelvin created a new settlement and named it for himself; since he had seized no land and kept his followers in line in stern military fashion, he did not earn the immediate enmity of the surrounding Traladaran residents (his son, however, is another matter). Recent History In the three decades following Duke Stefan’s arrival in Specularum, trade continued to flourish. Logging enterprises based out of villages such as Threshold and Kelvin provided significant revenue to the duchy. Specularum began housing ambassadors from many of the civilized nations of the world, particularly those that wished to engage in ongoing trade with Karameikos. Stefan founded a magical college on the ruins of the old city of Krakatos, which quickly became a center of learning. The duke, no economist or merchant himself, was generally a good judge of character and relied upon the advice of intelligent and impartial ministers and friends when deciding policy, arranging trade and state relations, and settling disputes. When the duke’s own common sense was not enough to solve a problem, he used the brains and experience of those who could provide a solution. His personal charisma and reputation for fairness began to endear him to the populace, Thyatians and Traladarans alike. The family of Karameikos also has profited. In A.C. 979, Duke Stefan married Lady Olivia Prothemian, a distant cousin of the Thyatian Imperial House. Stefan and Olivia had been betrothed when she was just 11, before Stefan took the Traladaran territory. Olivia stubbornly waited to see if Stefan could establish himself as master of his grand duchy, before finally traveling there at the age of 20 to wed him. The Karameikos’s first child, a daughter named Adriana, was born in A.C. 980; their second, a son Justin, was born in 982; and their third, a son Valen, in 986.